Julie Payette – Speech Outline

Performing my eminent speech last year was a great experience, and I can’t wait to do it on stage this year, in front of the whole NoTN audience. The problem is that I had no idea what I was going to do for my speech this year. At least, that was true until I came across two videos a couple days ago. One was of Julie Payette talking about how when she was younger, she was told she would never reach her dream of being an astronaut or a pilot, and was told she could only be a stewardess (http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/07/12/new-governor-general-julie-payette-was-told-she-could-never-be-a_a_23027150/). The second was her first address after becoming the Governor General of Canada (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saN-96i-m90). I decided to combine those, and do my speech from the perspective of her first address, but include quotes from the other video as well. I filled out a Freytag’s pyramid outline and wrote three different drafts of my speech, but I still have a long ways to go.

Here is my Freytag’s Pyramid Outline for my Speech:

Exposition: This is what my transition, and the first couple sentences of my speech will be. I will get introduced as the Governor General, and my first lines will be something like “merci boucoup, this is a great honour to be announced the 29th governor general of Canada”. These lines show who I am as well as set the scene, which is my first address after being named Governor General.

Conflict Introduced: The conflict of my speech will be a story of when I was 16 years old, and I was told I couldn’t be an astronaut, couldn’t be a pilot, and that I should try for a flight attendant. This starts the rising action.

Rising Action 1: This is when I say that “When someone tells you something like this you can either give up, or fight back.” It gives a hint of what happens later on in my life, and sets the scene for Rising Action 2.

Rising Action 2: At this point, I say “If you believe there is such thing as “impossible,” then tell me why just 60 years ago, it was considered impossible to survive outside of earth’s atmosphere, and yet, right now, as I speak to you, there are six different astronauts in space.” This shows that my choice was to fight back, and that I had decided to work towards my goal.

Rising Action 3: This is the point when I say that I went to school and worked and worked, and got degrees in science, to show that I am getting closer and closer to my goal.

Climax: This is the moment when I reflect on the moment of receiving the call telling me that I had been selected to go on a mission to space, on the STS-96 mission: the moment when I achieved my goal.

Falling Action 1: I start to sum up my ideas by telling the audience that we all need to work together and support each other, and that the people in my life that encouraged me helped me reach my goal, not the people that told me I couldn’t do it.

Falling Action 2: I use a direct quote from the real Julie Payette for the second falling action, stating that “we all have a dare to dream within us” and that if we all work together to achieve our dreams, we can progress society, together.

Resolution: For the resolution and conclusion of my speech, I use one more quote from Julie Payette, which is “If you have a dream and put effort and perseverance into it, anything is possible.” The finishing sentence of my speech is “remember, the sky is not the limit.”